AS THE slogan says, every little helps. But the team at Wokingham’s Salvation Army is finding that the help is a lot, not a little.
Staff members at the Finchampstead Road Tesco store have teamed up with the Sturges Road corps to help them provide a hot takeaway meal for the borough’s vulnerable residents this winter.
As we revealed last month, Churches Together Wokingham and the Salvation Army have launched the service as a replacement for its Bed For The Night scheme.
People can visit the Army’s Wokingham town centre base to collect the food – because of the pandemic, they are unable to offer sitdown meals.
Tesco has donated a range of items, including puddings, snacks, bottled water, and wooden knives and forks.
More than 100 meals a week are being provided so far, but organisers expect this to rise as Christmas approaches.
Captain Jan Howlin, of the Wokingham Salvation Army, said: “We’re just so grateful to Tesco for their help. It makes the world of difference to us. By joining together with partner organisations, we’re better able to help our community.
“This initiative is proving very successful and there are lots of benefits to it as well as the act of handing out food.
“There are a lot of people we see with mental health or addiction issues and when they come to us for their meal we can we can pick up on whether there’s a medical need.
“It’s also a chance to have a chat with them, make sure they’re okay and see if they need any additional support with anything.”
The Wokingham Salvation Army has been running its outreach programme for eight years, and recently linked with Wokingham Borough Council, which has been putting homeless people in temporary accommodation during the pandemic.
This partnership-working between the council, Salvation Army and Tesco is what’s making the scheme so effective.
Louise Jedras, community champion at the Finchampstead Road Tesco store, said: “We’re proud to be helping during such challenging times.
“The pandemic has hit so many people really hard, and we’re very keen to help the vulnerable in our society as best we can.
“We’ve always been community-minded here at the store and we will, of course, be continuing our essential community work during the run-up to Christmas and after.”
